Trenton council wants Trenton Mayor Tony Mack to intervene on issue of how clerk is paid

A file photo of Trenton Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson leading a city department directors meeting in the Mayor's Conference Room at City Hall on Thursday, September 6, 2012. Martin Griff/The Times of Trenton.

TRENTON — City Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson was told he was improperly using federal grant money to pay the salary of a clerk for more than a year, but did nothing to remedy it, according to a letter from city council members.

The letter, sent to Mayor Tony Mack on Oct. 30, says Hutchinson was told by several city employees as early as Oct. 18, 2012 that the clerk, Chikia Robinson, was being paid with Community Development Block Grant funds even though she was not working on projects that were eligible for the grant money.

Robinson was hired on Oct. 9, 2012 and assigned to the Department of Housing and Economic Development, where she was to work on eligible projects, but one day later, Robinson was reassigned to work in the Department of Administration at the direction of Hutchinson, according to the letter obtained by The Times.

CDBG, a program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, grants funds that may be used to pay for specifically designated projects such as park construction and grant funding for local organizations that build housing, fight homelessness and provide job training for teens, among other efforts.

According to the letter, hand delivered to Mack’s office on Oct. 30, council members are requesting that Mack direct Hutchinson to return Robinson to the Department of Housing and Economic Development.

Hutchinson and Robinson did not return messages left for them yesterday.
Council members met in two closed-door meetings last month to discuss the misuse of funds before drafting the letter.

In those meetings they interviewed Robinson, Hutchinson, administrative assistant John Seigel, Director of Housing and Economic Development Walter Denson, Director of the Division of Housing J.R. Capasso, the city’s CDBG coordinator Marc Leckington, personnel director in the administration department Lori Gallon, and budget officer Elana Chan. In addition they also found that Hutchinson had been warned at least five times by city employees, including Chan, Leckington and Denson, that Robinson’s salary should not have been paid with grant funds in e-mails and other communications from Capasso, Chan and Denson.

In one e-mail from Jan. 4, Chan informed Hutchinson, who previously served as an attorney for HUD in Washington, D.C., for more than 20 years before getting the city job last year, that “the city should not continue to violate CDBG spending guidelines.”

According to the letter from council, Robinson’s entire salary was paid through CDBG funds. According to budget documents the position for which Robinson was hired pays a minimum salary of $26,995.

The salaries for 10 employees in two city departments, Housing and Economic Development and Health and Human Services, are partially or completely funded with the block grant money. But paying employees who are not doing work that falls under the program’s purview could violate the terms of the federal grants and require the city to reimburse misused money.